您正在看的英文论文是:Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching。 lly caught people’s attention precisely because they were and are so colorful and eXPress an idea so well. But overuse caused them to lose their charm and freshness.

　　In persuasive writing such as social or political essays and editorials, English-speaking writers tend to be less militant in tone and language than most Chinese. The idea is to let the facts speak for themselves. In other words, the facts themselves should be able to convince the reader. Thus in such types of writing, one finds rather sparing use of such phrases as we must, we should not, it is wrong to, it is absurd, cannot be denied, resolutely demand. The tone is usually restrained; the language id generally moderate. In present-day Chinese social and political writings, facts are of primary importance, of course, but considerable stress is also laid on militancy, on making one’s stand clear. This difference in attitudes is an important one. EXPerience has shown that a hard-hitting essay or editorial in Chinese does not always have the effect intended when translated into English. Instead of convincing people, the blunt tone and language often antagonize people or arouse suspicion that the writer does not have a strong case and must resort to fiery language, rather than rely on facts and reasoning.

　　Besides the three points of differences mentioned above, there are others. If we couldn’t be acquainted with these differences, we would not write a standard English composition.

　　From what had been said, it is clear that cultural background knowledge is necessary in language teaching. Teachers should help students to solve the difficulties in language as well as in culture. Thus, further improve our quality of teaching.

　　It is not easy to teach cultural background knowledge. Firstly, teachers must be acquainted with the differences between the two linguistic cultures. Teachers can provide cultural information, as well as make students eXPress themselves correctly in different occasions, and the latter is more important.

　　Firstly teaching material is important. A proportion of foreign material and authentic material should be used, especially dialogues, because it’s more authentic and reflects cultural behavior followed by speakers. Authentic material refers to material selected from authentic activities concerning social factors. Next, teachers should eXPlain cultural factors involved in the material with purpose. Below is a dialogue between two English persons:

　　Helen: Hello, Susan.

　　Susan: Hello. I’m going to get a magazine and some chocolate. Would you like to go with me?

　　Helen: OK. Let’s go to that newsagent in the corner. I want some cigarettes.

　　Susan: I want to go to the one down the road. I’ve got to send off this parcel and there is a post-office in that one.

　　This dialogue tells us in England some newsagent’s shops not only sell sweets and cigarettes, but also install post office where people can send off letters and parcels. But in China, there are not such shops. If teachers don’t give the eXPlanations, students may feel puzzled.

　　Secondly, encourage students to read extensively, including novels, magazines, and newspapers etc. To most Chinese learners, acquisition of knowledge of western culture, mainly depend on reading material, while literal works is the most rich material through which we can know something about a people’s psychology, cultural characters, customs and habits, social relations etc. Teachers should guide students to accumulate relative cultural background knowledge when reading material. Through enormous reading, students’ understanding of culture will become ripe and complete.

　　Thirdly, in the classroom, teacher should pay attention to proper language forms as well as suitable use of language. One way of classroom teaching is to ask students to make similar dialogues to the text. A student inevitably